Overboard
by i love alex
Summary: He lets seconds pass that soon turn into minutes until it's enough already.    "Are you okay?"


A/N: I'm sorry for the delay with Lover, Lover but I just needed to get this idea out of my head and into words.

Disclaimer: Spoilers concerning Ziva's father returning again in november.

* * *

The reason why Eli David comes back is so irrational, so ridiculous that Tony can't even begin to argue with Gibbs on the man being permitted into the building. They had new evidence concerning a case that affected both NCIS and the Mossad. Eli David was a suspect. And he's in, he's got a visitors badge, he's cleared and in.

And he's not alone.

Ziva, gratefully, thankfully (ironically) isn't there when he makes his entrance, nearing nine. Her car had needed to be serviced. Tony knows this. Eli David does not.

"Where is my daughter?" He demands almost the second he walks in (strides, the bastard) and Tony can barely stand straight, he's seeing red.

"In autopsy." The double meaning of that doesn't even connect in his head until Gibbs is nearing, Vance is nearing and Tony has to sit, he's afraid of what he might do.

"Shalom, Eli." Vance speaks quietly, lowly under his breath. He extends his hand out towards the stairs while Gibbs merely eyes the man, words too dangerous and Tony can't remember a time when Gibbs had ever needed to fit both hands into his pockets before. He knows that they're balled.

"I wish to speak with my daughter."

"She's in autopsy." It's so loud, people all the way at the far end in their cubicles stop to turn and stare.

Tony gets to his feet, sliding his way around the men and into the elevator. He needs the solitude, the darkness the elevator will provide.

And he also needs to call her.

"I am almost there, Tony, what is it?" She asks quickly, though her tone is light. He doesn't say anything for a full minute, she counts in her head, because fuck him for doing this to her again. Fuck him.

"Tony, what is it?" She repeats and he can tell by the sound of her voice that she has stopped moving, walking away from her car perhaps.

"Ziva, I…I need you to do something for me and I need you not to ask me any questions, just to do what I tell you."

She can't control her lack of composure, nor fake it when she says, "What's going on?"

Tony shuts his eyes, cups a hand over them and wishes, for his sanity, that she was just downstairs, close enough for him to reach, "Your father…he's here."

She drops the phone. The sound of it hitting the ground hurts his ears and he's immediately switching off the emergency button and hitting instead the button for the ground lobby floor of their building.

He spots her immediately, leaning against her car, her phone still on the ground. When she spots him, it's like it snaps something back inside her and her face is calm and shows nothing of the desperation he knows is brewing inside her, and she walks right past him and into the building.

"Ziva." He yells. He needs to jog to catch up but he's already guessing her next move before she has even made it.

He barely clears it onto the elevator, it closing against his torso.

"Going up? She asks and he can only give her a look and slap the emergency button.

She reaches out so fast he can't stop her as she slaps it back.

"Where is he?"

He watches her as he leans against one of the back corners and folds his arms together, sighing against the tide of things he wants to tell her, should tell her and the things he knows he won't.

"Upstairs with Vance."

She nods but only once then turns to him, her mouth opening but the doors of the squad room floor ding open and she's distracted by the lights, the sounds and she turns away from him without another word and steps out.

He didn't realize he had pushed himself off the wall until he's watching her back.

"Ziva, do you really think…"

"How? How did he ever get the clearance to come into this building?" She demands and Gibbs pushes himself off his chair, heading towards her but she furiously shakes her head and moves back, almost hitting Tony.

"No, Gibbs this is not okay, he is not allowed to be here. I do not care what level authorization he has, he is not….why is he here? Why?" She asks, her voice hitching and for a moment, neither Tony nor Gibbs can say a word, helplessness seeping from their faces.

"He's not alone, Ziva. Ben-Gidon and another Israeli officer are with him." Gibbs says slowly, "He's here on business and he has limited access to where he can and can not go, including you."

She looks away from Gibbs up towards the stairs and then around the floor. McGee is standing from his desk and Abby, just coming up from autopsy, is standing on alert just behind him.

"Why is he here?" She repeats quietly and she's only talking to Gibbs now.

"There was a leak of information from NCIS to Mossad concerning an infiltration within a terrorist camp."

She looks at him, bewildered. Tony's hand is now barely grazing her back.

"A leak?" She says softly.

Gibbs flicks his eyes to Tony's and then to Ziva's, "A mole."

Tony can feel her sway, his hand steady and he comes forward, only to keep her upright.

"You don't have to talk with him, Vance is handling it." Gibbs says seriously.

Ziva nods.

"Take her home, DiNozzo."

But she's moving away from the both of them almost before it's left his mouth, and she settles herself at her desk, tapping keys on her computer.

"I'm not leaving." She says, her tone resolved. They both knew that there was no point pushing it.

Tony stands there for half a moment, hesitating between his desk and hers but Gibbs nods to him to sit down then nods back to Abby to get back downstairs.

He stands there in the centre for a moment, breathing in and out thickly.

"You find out what case it is." He shouts to the three of them, so loudly McGee jumps in his seat before scurrying for his keyboard.

Tony exchanges a look with Ziva, who nods quickly in assurance.

They spend the next hour and a half almost in complete silence. Tony looks over at her every now and then and sometime in between Gibbs gets up to get them all coffee.

"Boss." McGee says suddenly, his mouth gapping open.

They all look up at him, waiting. When McGee still doesn't speak, Gibbs slaps down on his desk with one hand.

"McGee!"

"The the the camp, the terrorist camp…the the mole…the Mossad mole…it was…it was..."

Tony's heart stops beating, the color draining from his face because he knows and the look on Ziva's face is nothing short of devastation, her hand cupping her mouth because she knows too.

She stands from her desk and is halfway up the stairwell before either one of them can stop her.

Gibbs jumps the stairs two at a time, "Ziva." He yells but it's pointless. She's yanking open the door of Vance's office like she's ploughing through nothing but air.

"You sent me to that camp in order to kill them, as Mossad. Not as a mole."

Her father has his back to her, a shot glass in one hand and Ziva spots Ben and a woman she doesn't recognize in the far corner of the room almost completely hidden, like they were shadows.

Ziva can feel Gibbs behind her, can hear Tony's feet running along the carpet.

"It is nice to finally see you again too, my Ziva." Eli says evenly, spinning the empty glass between his fingers. He turns his chair slowly around.

"Agent David, you are not permitted to be here at this time." Vance's tone is final and clear but it pushes on something Ziva can only hear as worry.

"You sent me there to die." She spits and lunges for her father. Ben and the woman immediately come forward and Gibbs grabs hold of both her arms.

"Ziva." He warns just against her ear and starts to pull but she shakes him off at the resistance and he can do nothing but let her go.

Eli blinks around like nothing has happened, his round eyes measured and unimpressed.

"You were not the mole, Ziva. The terrorist's were."

Ziva lets out a bewildered splutter of air, shaking her head and she cannot pull her eyes away from the man sitting below her.

"They were your men? You planted them there?"

"It was a matter of hands being tied. I did not plant them, I simple let them…"

"You…sent me there…to die." She repeats through her teeth and she has her gun in her hand, pointed at her father before anybody else can blink and she pushes against both Ben and the woman who have come for her again.

She easily throws Ben off her body, elbowing him so hard that he's winded, clutching his stomach and Ziva only eyes the woman and grins viciously at her, her breathing unsteady.

"Who are you?"

And without missing a beat, her father turns his head in her direction looking away from Ben and speaks the words clearly for all the world to hear, "Your replacement."

* * *

She walks, straight back out of the doorway after hearing her father, brushing past Gibbs, Tony and making her way back down to her desk.

Vance juts his head in the direction of the waiting room and follows the two men out, locking Eli in behind him.

"You're just letting the guy sit there, I mean what the hell are you doing with him in there, let him go, ban him from the building for crying out loud." Tony shouts, throwing his hands up.

"That's enough, Agent DiNozzo,"

Gibbs gives Tony a look and Tony sighs, spinning slowly around, tugging on his head.

"We're keeping him here because I want to have him interrogated."

Tony stops spinning and drops his hands, glaring at him, "You what?"

"And I want you to do it."

* * *

She's typing furiously, lord knows what when Gibbs and Tony eventually make there way back down and Gibbs blows straight past her, in the direction of the elevators while Tony never takes his eyes off her as he drops down onto his chair.

He lets seconds pass that soon turn into minutes until it's enough already.

"Are you okay?"

He regrets it the second it comes out of his mouth because of course she wasn't, he could hear her staggered breathing meters away. She doesn't stop typing though nor look up or make any indication that she's hearing him. Or listening.

"Ziva." He says loudly, his jaw locked. His fingers are knotted together in a fist in the middle of his desk and he stares at her relentlessly.

And like it's instilled in her, she pops her head up and juts up her shoulders in a shrug, her face perfectly neutral.

He throws down the pen he had wheeled into his fingers, shoves back his chair and walks past her desk, "Elevator. Now."

She rolls her eyes but pushes her hands against her desk and stands, folding her arms and following him into the elevator.

The doors are barely closing before he's slapping the emergency button and resting against the panel with his forehead.

"Talk to me, punch me, scream at me, just do something, anything Ziva, just don't ignore me, don't pretend that all this is okay, because it isn't." He says indignantly and moves away from the wall to look at her.

For a second, he seriously thinks she is going to punch him. And he expects it, hopes for it. For her to be so out of control that she finally lets it go, unfolds around him.

They stare at one another, for a long time, neither willing to back down but it's the tiniest shake of her hand that tips him off, gives him that warning before her face contorts and she's falling, sobbing loudly, clawing at his shoulders.

"I can't…I can't do this anymore." She cries, the sound muffled by his jacket and it breaks his heart, so much more than anything else she has ever said to him.

He knows that whatever happens, whatever has happened in this elevator, they will never speak of again. So he holds her tighter, slides his nose along her neck and whispers, "Let me do it for you."

She heaves for air and fists balls of his shirt into her hands and he waits. Waits until her back stops trembling. Until she isn't making those noises from her throat anymore, waits for the air to settle slightly.

"They took him…to one of the interrogation rooms to be questioned and Gibbs has asked me to perform it, I wanted to let you know, give you the chance to say no."

She moves off from him but keeps her hands splayed against his chest and blinks through her wet eyelashes, stuck together in clumps. It makes her eyes look a little darker, a little clearer.

"Okay."

"Okay, yes or okay no?"

Ziva uses the back of her hand to wipe her cheeks, fixes her blouse and pushes the emergency switch off.

"Okay yes."

* * *

"DiNozzo, this will be just like any other interrogation, you got that? He's a suspect, the head of Israeli Mossad, not Special Agent Ziva David's father."

Well when you put her last name at the end of that sentence it does but Tony nods, keeping his face locked, his body tight. He had to be in control, or at least, had to fake it enough to make it look like he was.

Vance nods just once, seeming to buy it and disappears through the observation room doorway, where he is sure, Gibbs is now as well. He knows why he hasn't talked to him, given him the exact speech. He was unable to hide how subjective this whole thing really was.

Tony puts one hand on the knob of the door, pushes all thoughts of Ziva far out of his head, far away from his heart and turns the handle.

He's standing in the far corner, his mouth in a straight line, his eyebrows bent together and when he sees Tony, he lets out a soft chuckle.

Tony breathes.

"Take a seat."

He chucks down the file onto the table and grips to the top bar of his chair because as much as this isn't about playing the part of the bigger man. It is.

"Want me to put it in writing. Sit."

"I see your attitude has not been improved, no? Mr Anthony DiNozzo."

"Special Agent DiNozzo, ordering you to sit down. You are nobody but a suspect in here Eli and you sit when I tell you to take a seat."

An emotion Tony can't quite define flashes across Eli's face and he almost looks taken aback by the directness of the order. He takes two steps, peels the chair away and sinks down into it, half turned away from the table.

"You have my attention. Special Agent."

"Will he be able to handle it?" Vance mutters over his toothpick.

"Yes." Ziva replies without hesitating. Between them, Gibbs doesn't say a word but lets the side of his arm barely graze Ziva's.

"You're under the mistake that I, the head of an internationally renowned intelligence agency, allowed a mole to infiltrate this camp in ways of seizing information about the Navy of the United States."

"Not information, people. Saleem was working for you."

Eli blinks up at Tony, shocked.

Both Vance and Gibbs look at one another. Saleem was never to be mentioned until absolutely necessary. Beside them, Ziva thinks she might be sick.

"I wonder, Anthony, why your Special Agent Gibbs would allow you to conduct such an interview knowing you are so pathetically bound personally to the situation."

Tony's up from his chair and he can hear the pounding of his heart so loudly in the shallows of his ears, that for a moment, he's deaf to everything.

"She is not a situation, she is your daughter, you egotistical son of a bitch."

"He's way over his head." Vance mutters and looks to Gibbs.

"Give him a minute." He replies.

"Like I said," Eli mutters lazily, "Pathetic."

Tony's sig is out so fast; his fingers are on the trigger before Eli can even smile but he does, slowly, not looking away from Tony's eyes.

"You would really kill the father of the woman you are in love with, in front of her?"

"Yes." Tony shouts.

Eli merely raises his eyebrows.

"Ah. So it's true."

Tony's eyes flare out and his hand drops an inch from the aim it has on Eli's face.

"Yes." He breathes softly.

Against the glass pane separating them, Ziva sags, loosing all feeling somewhere below her throat.

"Why then do you question me about loyalties when she has so obviously blinded you for thinking she has yours?"

"Pull him out." Vance orders but Gibbs already has his hand on the doorknob.

Tony grabs his chair in both hands and shoves it underneath the handle of the door, affectively jamming all entry to the interrogation room before Gibbs has even made it out of the door of the observation room.

"Get him the hell out!" Vance yells and leaves Ziva, who cannot, for the life of her, move.

"You wanna give her a message, tell her your sorry before I blow your brains out?" Tony yells and he shoves the table separating the two of them easily away. Gibbs pounds on the door and Tony knows he's only got seconds if he's really going to do this.

"You want to kill me," Eli shouts, standing too. He's done playing games, "Then you man up, and shoot. You do not talk to me about apologies. She was my daughter, mine and she belonged to the Mossad. She only received what was justifiable punishment." Eli bellows and pounds his fist into his chest.

"Justifiable…justifiable punishment? You wanna know what her medical chart read, once we got her home? Two broken ribs. One broken finger. One black eye. Signs of repetitive sexual abuse. She could barely walk straight because of the blisters on her feet. They couldn't lie her on her back because of the bruising. You abandoned her, left her for dead like she was a dog on the side of the road. You don't have the right to call her your daughter, she was nothing to you, nothing." Tony spits and he drops his gun just as the door breaks through. He's tackled and grabbed by Gibbs and two guards while Vance hovers at the doorway, the look to Eli, once and for all ceasing their tie.

"You will be refused entry into the United States from this day forward Eli. It's over…or so help me god, without blinking I will pull the trigger myself."

Eli, for once, looks defeated and can only nod as two more guards come to seize him.

* * *

There is a moment, a full 10 minutes, of blind, sheer panic when nobody can locate Ziva. It's Abby who finds her, still standing at the observation window, her hands balled by her sides.

"Ziva?" Abby carefully asks. She shuts the door behind her. They didn't need an audience for this.

"Ziva, I can get Gibbs if you want…"

"No, Abby, I do not need Gibbs."

And she turns, her bottom lip tucked beneath her top with tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh Ziva."

She folds, right into Abby's chest, letting herself be held.

"We love you so much." Abby breathes, her own tears coming and Ziva feels the smile come of it's own accord.

* * *

They're all asleep. Well, McGee and Abby (and Palmer) are. Gibbs was still up with the Director, Ziva was getting checked out by Ducky (Abby's orders) and Tony was cooped up in a conference room, needing just a little time. It's almost past 2.

Ducky examines her as distantly as he can, knowing she didn't want to be touched. Not that she usually did but he could sense it particularly tonight so he kept the questions to a minimum but squeezed a shoulder, her hand when she let him.

"Ducky?" She asks once she's all clear and heading out the door. She's exhausted and needs sleep and hopes that she still has that pillow in her bottom desk drawer.

"Yes, Ziva?"

"Do you remember in one of the first weeks back, during the Damocles case, what I said to you, what I warned you?"

Ducky hesitates for a moment but then nods, "I remember."

"Well, I'm glad you did not listen."

Ducky smiles warmly, "Me too my dear."

* * *

She isn't surprised to see that his backpack is still there but he isn't. She makes her way through the empty rooms until she finally hits the last one, the tiniest one, the one furthest away from anything and anyone.

She hovers for a moment just by the doorway.

"You can come in." He says quietly. He's sitting on the table looking out the window, faced away from her with his feet against a chair. It may be the smallest room but it had the best view of the harbour.

She shuts the door and makes her away around the table, peeling off her shoes as she goes.

"Ducky gave me a sleeping pill."

"Good." He replies not looking away from the window.

She stops once she reaches him and pulls a chair out, the closet one to him.

They sit in silence for a moment.

It's too heavy for her, these things now between them but she can't think of what to say, to do and all she wanted, more than anything was to just touch him. Sleep against his body, maybe kiss him when she woke up.

"I never stopped trusting you." He says suddenly and finally looks at her with his eyes dark and tired.

"I know." She says softly.

He looks down at the floor, uncrossing his hands and slides his feet back to the carpet. He could literally put out his hand and they'd be touching, they're so close.

"You should sleep." He says and shrugs out of his jacket: an offering.

She nods as he drops his jacket to the floor, not even bothering with it he was so worn.

He looks at her in their shell of quiet truth and lets out a soft noise, deep in his throat that gets her, deep in her chest.

Without touching any other part of him, she steps up as close as she can and presses her lips, full against the underside of his chin and he shuts his eyes,

"You should sleep." She whispers into his skin and reaches for his hand.

"Yes," He says hoarsely, his throat aching, the warmth of her hand dragging him to the carpet.

He fits himself against the wall as she rolls around a little, getting comfortable. He remembers that she always had the weirdest sleeping positions.

"Come here." He says eventually because he's beyond the point of pretending, and so are they and she wriggles towards him.

She ends up curled, her back pressed to his chest, with her arms scrunched beneath her chin. Her hair is tickling his face but he finds that spot where if he breathed in, he could only smell her skin.

He's out the second they both stop moving and she basically the second they hit the floor. And they sleep, without hesitation, regret, apprehension for what was to come for when they were to awake.

Tomorrow a new and more hopeful day.


End file.
